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Conductor

Erkki Lasonpalo

GENERAL MANAGEMENT

Artistic Director of the Mikkeli Music Festival
Chief conductor and artistic director of the Saimaa Sinfonietta
Chief conductor and artistic director of the St. Michel Strings
Chief conductor and artistic director of the Lappeenranta City Orchestra



A decade after he was invited to study with the Finnish conducting guru Jorma Panula, Erkki Lasonpalo is making a name for himself as a conductor who combines fluent technique with natural communicative spirit. After tutoring from Panula, Erkki continued his studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Leif Segerstam, where he was awarded a Wegelius Foundation grant and graduated with the highest honors.

One of the leading Finnish conductors of his generation Erkki Lasonpalo has conducted most of the major orchestras in Finland including the Helsinki Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, Tampere and Turku Philharmonic and the Lahti, Oulu and Kuopio Symphony Orchestras. He has been also engaged by the City Orchestras of Lappeenranta, Vaasa, Pori, Jyväskylä and Joensuu as well as the Tapiola Sinfonietta and the Lapland Chamber Orchestra. Erkki has augmented his growing experience in opera by working with the orchestra of the Finnish National Opera and Ballet, where he is regularly returning to, and with the Oulu Opera, Savonlinna Opera Festival and Sakari Oramo’s West Coast Kokkola Opera Company. Internationally he has given acclaimed performances with the Gothenburg Symphony, Iceland Symphony, Sinfonietta Cracovia, ADDA Sinfónica (Alicante) among many others.

Erkki has worked as the artistic director of the Helsinki Sinfonietta in 2014-2020, Kemi City Orchestra in 2016-2020, Heinävesi Music Festival in 2014-2023 and as an artistic partner of St. Michel Strings (Mikkeli City Orchestra) in 2017-2020.

Since 2020 Erkki has held the position of Chief Conductor of St. Michel Strings and Artistic Director of Lappeenranta City Orchestra. In the summer of 2023 Erkki started as the Artistic Director of the Mikkeli Music Festival. Mikkeli Music Festival signed a four-year cooperation agreement with Philharmonia Orchestra of London.

2025 will see his debuts in South America, Switzerland, Czech Republic & Portugal, while returning to Spain in 2026 after his acclaimed previous concerts.

Like many of the most distinguished Finnish conductors working globally, Erkki laid the foundations of his musicianship as a professional instrumentalist. He studied violin at the Sibelius Academy and was a member of the prize-winning Postiglione String Quartet.

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